C'mon Hollywood #198

I don’t for one second feel that this “act” Joaquin Phoenix is doing is real. It’s not because of drugs or because he’s gone nuts. He’s doing it for attention and because he’s bored. At first, I wanted to slam Phoenix for being annoying and reducing himself to an American Idol reject that’s trying anything to achieve their fifteen minutes of fame. Except Phoenix is already famous, so the stunt just seems pathetic. However, he’s made me watch a Letterman clip, which I haven’t done in years, and download his “rap” video. So that’s got to count for something.

People keep questioning whether he’s serious and I can’t believe anyone believes that he really wants to be a rapper. He’s making an ass out of the paparazzi and they’re eating it up. I guess on that account, he should receive some kudos. The press is also assuming all of this is because he’s on drugs. Well of course he’s on drugs, but I don’t think drugs have anything to do with his current behavior. I guess the old saying that “no press is bad press” rings true and hell, I wouldn’t be writing about him if he wasn’t running around town making a fool of himself. But this is a stunt I would expect a reality TV star to pull, not one of the more talented actors working today.

Over the years, many celebrities have gone on talk shows and made a fool of themselves. However, I believe that nine times out of ten, the celebrity is faking it to generate buzz about their career/show/movie/album/etc. But the closest thing I can think of to Phoenix’s stunt is Andy Kauffman’s girl-wrestling bit he did back in the late 70’s, early 80’s. The difference, of course, is that Kauffman did it for laughs and didn’t really have a promising movie career to fall back on. And Kauffman was actually a comedian. But is this what Phoenix is trying to do? Is he trying to be funny? Or is he just doing it for his own amusement?

I don’t know…I hear worse on the radio these days.

While we’re on the subject, what’s up with actors claiming to “retire”? It’s annoying when athletes retire and come back, but at least with athletes you know they will eventually have to retire. I don’t think actors ever retire, they just run out of work. In fact, the only actor I can think of that truly “retired” is Sean Connery (because he got offers and turned them down). It’s not “retiring” if you can’t get work, it’s called being unemployed. But in Phoenix’s case, I hope no one believes that he won’t do another movie. When the publicity and money runs out from this schtick, he’ll be right back in front of the camera, assuming someone will hire him.

I loved WALK THE LINE, so let’s get him back to doing good roles like that.

I don’t have any kids, but I’ve been told that whenever a kid displays erratic or obnoxious behavior to get attention, you should ignore them so they don’t associate that behavior with positive reinforcement. Or is that dogs? The methodology is so close that I get confused sometimes. Either way, Joaquin Phoenix is full of shit and rather than slam him for being crazy, we should accept he’s playing with us and just sit back and see how far he’s willing to take it. Personally, I’d like to see him get up in a real-life Detroit night club like in 8 MILE and see how he does. Now THAT would be a cool video to download.